Roman Abramovich spends £17million on a big fat naked lady

He is better known for investing in footballers than paintings, but Roman Abramovich is believed to have become a new art collector.

Multi-billionaire Abramovich is believed to be the mystery collector who bought two paintings last week for figures which smashed previous world records, and set him back £61.4million during 48 hours.

The 41-year-old Russian tycoon's fortune is estimated at £11.7billion, and he has ploughed some of this into Chelsea Football Club.

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Art collection: Roman Abramovich has bought Lucien Freud's painting of Sue Tilley. It has become the world's most expensive painting by a living artist

His reported decision to invest in art is believed to be because of the influence of girlfriend Dasha Zhukova, 25, who wants to open a contemporary art gallery in Moscow.

The first painting - Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping - was sold by Christie's at New York's Rockefeller Center last Tuesday for £17.2million - a world auction record for a living artist. The painting, completed in 1995, features Sue Tilley stretched naked across a sofa.

The next day the same collector is believed to have bought Francis Bacon's Triptych, a three-panel piece painted in 1976, for £44.2million at a Sotheby's auction. It was the highest auction price ever paid for a post-war work of art.

Although Neither Sotheby's nor Christie's disclose information on buyers, The Art Newspaper reported that sources close to the market confirmed Abramovich purchased both lots, apparently for display in his London home.

He has not previously been known to purchase works of art at this level.

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Happy couple: Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova. It is understood she wants to open a contemporary art gallery in Moscow

Cristina Ruiz, editor of The Art Newspaper, said: "Abramovich is now said to be the buyer of both these paintings and I'm very impressed by his choices. He has gone at the highest level, but these are good purchases and I think they will retain their price.

"Abramovich appears to be completely new to the market.

"It's very interesting because the power in the art world is shifting from European and American collectors who are selling to Russian and Middle Eastern collectors. It means the market is very resilient," she told The Sunday Times.

The Bacon Triptych painting bought by Abramovich was auctioned by Sotheby's for the Moueix family, owners of Château Pétrus, one of the world's most expensive Bordeaux wines.

They had owned it since it was bought from a show in Paris at the Galerie Claude Bernard in 1977.

Abramovich's girlfriend, Miss Zhukova, plans to renovate a 1920s bus garage in Moscow into a new modern art gallery.

Earlier this year Chelsea revealed Abramovich has ploughed £578million into the club in the last four-and-a-half years.

And last year the billionaire paid three times the price for a piece of farmland near his family's home in Sussex.

He handed over £5million for the 300 acres - just so his children can ride their ponies in peace.

The owner, 61-year-old David King, even managed to strike a deal to keep living in his house.

Abramovich has been buying up land in the area where he used to live with ex-wife Irina and their five children.

He was forced to hand over the 420-acre Sussex estate to Irina, 40, during the divorce. And, anxious to please the children, he decided to buy the fields near their £18million home to give them a chance to practise their dressage.